


Taming Lions, befriending foxes

by trubenblack



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: ? sort of, Friendship, M/M, Minor Violence, NEIL AND ANDREW DESERVE FRIENDS 2K18, Past Drug Addiction, Publicity, Softness, Swearing, an outsider POV on andreil, lots of swearing sorry lol
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-27
Updated: 2018-11-27
Packaged: 2019-09-01 07:34:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,125
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16760782
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/trubenblack/pseuds/trubenblack
Summary: Sierra had the worst job in the world.~~Or Neil Josten get's a publicity manager and they all get more than what they expected.





	Taming Lions, befriending foxes

Sierra had the worst job in the world.

No, that was a lie; she just had the worst _fucking_ client in the universe that literally could not keep his mouth shut. He was going to get her fired she knew it, but they were currently paying her to get his shit together so that’s what she was doing, even if she had to _throttle_ Neil fucking Josten herself, she would do it. She’d never done a house call before, never wanted to invade on his personal space but he’d taken it _too far_ today and she had to get this sorted quickly and the idiot never bloody answered his phone.

She knocked on the door aggressively, not bothering to be polite, however she found herself taking a step back when a very angry, very sleepy looking blonde man opened the door. Now Sierra was 5’6”, which she had never thought was particularly tall, but she towered over Andrew Minyard as he squinted up at her. She paused and pulled herself together, she was a _professional_ and if her client didn’t want to tell her about his... Boyfriend? Probably? She wasn’t going to ask.

“I need to come in, is Josten in?”

“No.” Minyard went to close the door but she put her foot in front of it.

“No? Well that’s okay, I’ll wait for him.” She forced her way in, making sure she didn’t touch him at all. She knew about Andrew Minyard and she also know what it was like to not want to be touched, once she was inside she turned around to see a knife being pointed at her, she was ashamed to say it wasn’t the first and probably wouldn’t be the last so she wasn’t that worried about it.  
  


“Who are you?”

“Put that away, I'm not going to hurt you or your boyfriend I'm here to talk to him about why he’s such a fucking idiot.” Minyard didn’t flinch at the term boyfriend so she decided she had assumed correctly, but he did smirk at her blunt way of talking, his knife had gone lax in his hand.

“There’s no way of knowing the answer to that, I’ve been trying to work that out for years, but you haven’t answered _who_ you are.”

“I'm his fucking publicity manager is who I am.” Sierra was incredibly good at reading people, her upbringing and her job had taught her that well enough, but even a novice could notice the way Minyard’s entire posture tightened up even more. “I'm not here to start shit or try to force him to get a girlfriend or force either of you to come out. God knows other people in my business would but I do not care what either of you does with each other or with anyone, if you don’t want it out in public it won’t be. What I _do_ deal with is what Josten says to the fucking press, god help me.” During her rant Minyard’s arm had grown lax and he stared at her slack jawed, she could tell he had not been expecting this kind of personality from a publicity manager but at this point she didn’t care, she knew she had been given Josten so that her bosses could gain an excuse to fire her and _so help her_ she would burn the fucking world before she let a midget redhead do that.

She calmed her breathing slowly, knowing that if she continued to get riled up she would be seen as hostile and a threat and she was well aware of how flighty Neil Josten was and how aggressive Andrew Minyard could be. She let herself sag onto the arm of a couch and found herself attacked by a soft nose of a cat. As surprising as the revelation that _Andrew Minyard and Neil Josten lived together with at least one cat_ was, she didn’t let it change her thoughts on anything. Minyard had finally put his knife away and was leaning against the wall.

“What did he do?” he asked, he had no inflection in his tone but it was clear he was curious.

“I would rather not discuss my client without him in the room, even if you are his boyfriend or whatever.” She closed her eyes briefly feeling a massive headache coming on.

Luckily or not, she was saved from having to fight off any curiosity on Minyard’s part by the door opening and Josten entering, immediately starting to yell.

“Drew you’ll never guess what – oh?” He had noticed Minyard standing against the wall and his eyes immediately fired looking for anything that could be wrong, landing on her. He relaxed. “Oh, Sierra. What are you doing here?” His nonchalance was so grating she was working _so hard_ to remain professional.

“What is wrong Mr. Josten, is that you went up to a reporter _on the anniversary of Riko Moriyama’s death_ and told him that Riko Moriyama had always been a worthless piece of shit and should have died earlier.” Somewhere to her side Minyard snorted but she could only glare daggers at Josten.

“Oh that, yeah well, he was being annoying and I got tired of it.” Josten didn’t look even slightly upset and she lost her temper, standing up and taking one step towards him before a very angry blonde had her pinned against the wall with a knife to her throat. _Ah,_ she slowly put her hands palm down against the wall and let herself relax so that she wasn’t showing any signs of hostility. She slowly lowered her eyes to Minyard’s angry ones and said very slowly and calmly.

“I am not here to hurt any one who means anything to you. I am here to protect him just as you are doing, you can let me go. I won’t move toward him again.”

The anger in Minyard’s eyes got clouded over with confusion and his arm against her chest twitched. She made sure to relax herself even more so she was no threat. His eyes fired with recognition and he stepped back.

“That wasn’t the usual reaction I get when I threaten someone.”

“I am not a usual person Mr. Minyard.” Sierra stepped back into her professional stance and voice, brisk and impersonal.

“So it seems.” Minyard’s eyes were considering but he continued to move away from her and over to one of the cats who was watching curiously. With that dealt with, Sierra turned back to Josten who was gaping at the two of them.

“Mr. Josten, I would appreciate it if you did _not_ say things like that to the press, I understand it can be difficult to control yourself when they are being particularly stressful, however, your behavior will have an effect on your career and on mine and that is not something I will let happen. I have told Mr. Minyard and will repeat to you, I am no danger to you or your personal life. I have absolutely no want to be involved in it at all or to put you our of your comfort zone, but I _do_ expect you to think before you speak. This relationship will work better if you actually _attempt_ to not make enemies every time you open your mouth.” Minyard snorted once again at that comment and Josten shot him a glare before turning back to Sierra.

“I understand. What do I need to do?” Sierra blinked, having been expecting a fight and had to take a moment to gather her thoughts.

“O-okay so the first thing we need to do is get on this quickly. We need to release a statement immediately saying that it was early in the morning and the pap had been yelling at you about it for hours, make it sound _bad_ make it sound like it’s the pap’s fault that you said that. We can put out a statement but it would be better if you posted it yourself, even if its just from a screenshot of the notes on your phone.”

Josten seemed to consider for a minute before looking at Minyard. A silent conversation passed between the two of them but Sierra tried to avert her eyes. She had already said she had no intentions of understanding or knowing about their personal lives. Eventually Josten cleared his throat and she snapped her eyes back to him, he was clearly considering her, it was eerily similar to the one Minyard had turned on her before.

“Okay.”

That was the best thing Neil Josten had ever said to her and she let out a breath of air, finally relaxing from her fight or flight stance she hadn’t noticed she’d fallen into. She looked toward Minyard.

“Can I leave the wall please?”

The flinch was almost unnoticeable but the strong _don’t say that,_ whichboth men snapped at her at the same time definitely pulled her up but she didn’t ask, simply nodded.

“Noted. Can I leave the wall anyways?”

Minyard nodded, body slowly uncurling from the tightness that had returned to it at that word before he wandered out of the room into what she could only assume was the kitchen or the bedroom. She made her way slowly over to Josten who pulled out his phone and they worked together to make up a _suitable_ apology, even though Josten’s lip curled any time she mentioned saying something positive about Riko. She let that one slide and simply went for the direction of blaming it on the paparazzi. It would work.

Once they were done she stood up, stretched, grabbed her bag from beside the door and turned to say goodbye.

“I hope I _won’t_ be seeing you in the near future Mr. Josten.”

“Call me Neil.”

That was a surprise but she nodded, turning with a two-fingered salute in his direction, which pulled a surprised laugh from him. Both of them froze for a second in shock before she simply shrugged and walked out. Her phone was already blowing up with messages from her colleagues at how the _hell_ she got Neil “Lightning” Josten to apologies or talk about his words at all. She smiled to herself, _she_ had done this, and she was good at her job. _Good lucky firing me now boss,_ she thought grimly to herself as she started the long walk to the bus stop. Things were beginning to look up.

_________________

Sierra did in fact se Neil in the near future, in fact she saw him at least once a fortnight for almost three months before things started to clear up, the paparazzi slowly starting to leave him alone as they had continued to use them as scapegoats to excuse Neil’s actions and the public was eating it up. This did not, however, mean Sierra was expecting Neil to punch a fucking pap in the face a few weeks into the _dry spell_ as Sierra had taken to calling the points in between Neil’s outbursts.

At this point Andrew was so used to her bursting in angrily that when he opened the door he barely looked at her as she charged in.

“Where is he?”

“Out.”

“Good I’ll fucking wait then.”

“Okay.”

God they were both so infuriating sometimes she just couldn’t help herself and she snapped at the man.

“Can’t you tell your fucking boyfriend to control himself, no in fact can’t you fucking control your boyfriend since it is clear he can’t control himself.” She knew it wasn’t fair to blame Andrew but _holy fuck_ it was like he was egging him on. Andrew turned and looked at her blankly.

“No.”

“You know what?” Sierra had had enough. “Fuck the both of you to be honest, I'm _so_ sick of this, are you truly just trying to ruin both of your careers? Because go the fuck ahead I couldn’t care _less._ But you both seem to fucking think its okay to take my job down with you and I can _fucking promise you_ I will end everything you hold dear if you do.”

“Is that a threat?” Andrew’s voice had gone icy. Sierra paused for a minute but she’d gone far enough at this point she was going to lose her job anyways, might as well get herself killed in the process.

“Yes. It is. The both of you have your heads so fucking far up your asses and that’s _fine_ but you don’t see me fucking going out of my way to stop the press and your _managers_ from trying to force fake relationships on Neil or for you both to come forward with whoever he’s dating. _I’m_ the one who has made everyone leave you alone. So stop fucking pretending like I'm just some inconvenience.” Her piece said, she went to walk out the door fully prepared for the call she was going to receive firing her but she was drawn up short.

“Wait.”

She turned back to Andrew who looked just as surprised at the word leaving him as she was. She turned and crossed her arms, waiting for him to keep going, not deigning to speak. He sighed before going and sitting down, gesturing for her to follow.

“What if we were both to hire you privately?”

“You what?” She gaped at him. “Did you not just hear my entire spiel about how you could both go fuck yourselves?”

“I heard it, but I also heard that second half. My publicity managers have been trying to force me to come forward with a fake girlfriend and my coach and others have been trying to force me to do it as well. I refuse to do it but it is causing… issues. If Neil and I work to not cause quite as many issues, will you work privately for the both of us?”

“I'm not cheap.”

“We have the money.”

“I- okay.”

“Okay?”

“Yes okay, I’ll do it, my boss sucks anyway, I'm sure you two would be better, even if you’re both idiots.” She almost laughed at Andrew’s affronted expression.

“I am not the idiot in my relationship, I am offended you would say that to me.”

“Did you just… make a joke?”

“No.” He tried to put his expression back into a neutral position but it was too late.

“You did! You just made a joke to me! Oh my god wait don’t tell Neil I feel like that’s like going to 8thbase with you and you are _really_ not my type.”

Andrew was looking at her in complete surprise before an amused chuff slipped out of his mouth.

“God I can see why you and Neil butt heads so badly, you’re both so similar.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You’re both idiots with an affinity for danger and you both obviously grew up lying to everyone and only recently made yourselves into real people.” He said carelessly, not truly seeming to expect any reaction, but he got one anyway. Sierra froze, her whole body turning to ice.

“What did you just say?” she couldn’t breathe.

“You’re not the only one who can read people. You weren’t even scared when I attacked you with a knife; you just threatened me when you _know_ what I can do. You aren’t really afraid of getting fired, you definitely aren’t afraid of making up lies to help Neil get away with being an idiot. A certain junkie I know had similar reactions to almost all of those things.” Sierra’s whole body jerked at _that_ word. “Oh? I had thought so but I didn’t want to make any assumptions. Ex-junkie right? Grew up in a shit family? Probably started early and then eventually got clean and started a whole new life?”

“Stop.” Sierra said softly, curling in on herself. Her whole life, everything she had built felt like it was caving in. “Stop it.” Her hands were shaking. She was waiting for the next blow, but instead, Andrew’s voice suddenly got softer in a way that she never knew it could.

“I’m not going to tell anyone Sierra, I'm not going to use it against you, like I said, you’re like Neil, I learned in my early twenties that it was possible for people to change. Along with that, you didn’t betray us. I’ll make you a deal, you help us, you work for us, and this is never mentioned again.”

Sierra took a deep breath; this was _not_ how she was expecting things to go. She unclenched her fists and sat up straighter before sticking out her hand, Andrew stared at it for a moment before slowly reaching out and shaking it.

“Deal.” She said firmly wrenching her hand back from his and wiping it off furiously, she noticed him doing the same thing. They might have more in common than she had first thought. They sat staring at each other before Neil walked in, immediately seeing them and feeling the energy in the room.

“What did I miss?”

________________

Sierra’s relationship with Neil Josten and Andrew Minyard quickly turned more into a friendship than a professional relationship than any of them wanted to admit. So they didn’t, not for almost a year after she started working for them. They paid her well as they had promised and she trusted them both. That wasn’t to say her job was easy, Neil Josten was still an absolute _idiot_ when it came to talking to the paparazzi and she soon learned Andrew Minyard wasn’t much better. When he did talk to paparazzi it was always to say something that riles things up. As frustrating as this was for her, she had to admit, it became rather amusing after some time, every morning she would check her phone waiting for some mess to clean up. As the got closer she did end up getting at least some of the story of Riko Moriyama out of Neil although she sensed there was a big part missing. Even without that part though, she had to admit, she often agreed with the vitriol he spit about the man. Unfortunately though it was her job to tell him off about it. Often over coffee, with one or two of them, sometimes at their house, sometimes at a little orange coffee shop that Neil seemed to love and Andrew seemed to put up with.

This friendship was never mentioned until Sierra got a message on her phone telling her to put on her nicest clothes and come down to the courthouse. She immediately shot off of her couch throwing her sandwich down onto the plate to be dealt with later and rushed to put on a red jumpsuit and heels she always wore to anything fancy before doing her makeup as quickly as she could before rushing her way downstairs and hailing a cab. She made it to the courthouse just in time to be a witness to the wedding of… two of her best friends if she was honest. It was one of the best feelings in the world, especially when she got to see the way both of their eyes shined with happiness as they looked at each other. She could honestly say she had never been more proud of either of them. She couldn’t help taking some sneaky photos of them on her phone when they were distracted, just as some pictures for herself. Once the ceremony was over both men turned away from each other and briskly walked outside, Neil nodding at her to fall in step with them.

“So, what’s happening now?” She asked, honestly not sure if they were getting coffee or going out partying.

“It’s time for our version of the reception. We’re meeting at _academy_ for drinks with our family.” Neil answered her, opening the back door of the Maserati for her before sliding into the passenger seat and sliding his hand into Andrew’s nonchalantly. Sierra had heard of the place and knew it was a fairly upmarket bar/club, she’d never been, not being one for drinking herself with her _past,_ but she could understand the pull of it. 

“Do your family know it’s a reception?”

“Yes, we asked them not to come to the wedding because we wanted that to be just for us but they were allowed to be here for the period afterwards.”

“Were they happy with that arrangement?”

“Not originally no, our families are very… nosy, but they understood. Be prepared for a lot of yelling though.” Neil warned but there was a soft smile on his face. Sierra could already tell the men’s families’ were of the good sort.

Of course, she hadn’t exactly been expecting a bunch of old foxes from Neil’s original team to come sprinting at them when they walked through the door. She found herself entering a fight or flight mode before Andrew made his way over to her and grabbed her arm pulling her out of the fray.

“Meet the family, Ms. Jakeman.”

“I can’t say this is what I was expecting but this is very on brand for both of you.” She decided smiling at him before an incredibly loud man came running over to them.

“Andrew _holy fuck!_ I'm so proud of you… wait… who’s this?” His eyes were looking over her suspiciously.

“Hi! I'm Sierra Jakemen I'm Andrew and Neil’s…” She suddenly didn’t know what to say before Andrew broke in.

“Friend, Nicky. She’s our friend.”

Sierra had to say, that word filled her whole heart with so much warmth it took her a minute to notice the loud man, _Nicky,_ was talking. Luckily he was yelling to the others, “ _Holy shit guys Andrew and Neil have a friend that isn’t us_.” Which honestly made her snort. Slowly everyone started to move towards the table and started drinking. Andrew got both Sierra and Neil two cokes and they sat drinking together happily. Soon Allison, whom Sierra had met earlier came over to the three of them, zoning in on Sierra.

“So… How did you meet Neil and Andrew, were you trying to date Neil and then found out they were happily engaged?” Allison laughed at Neil’s look of disgust before seeming surprised at Sierra’s matching one. “Oh come on, you can’t tell me you never thought that Neil was attractive.”

“I’m sure he is but he’s really… not my type.”

“Not in to short people? Yeah some people are like that.”

“No… I’m not into, men really, or women. I'm asexual and aromantic.”

“Oh? Wait so you’ve never-“

“Allison.” Andrew’s voice cut through sharply and Sierra felt herself react. She did _not_ want to have to explain this tonight. Allison started between them before shrugging and letting it go.

“So! If it wasn’t because of that, then how did you meet my two sons?” She sent a piercing look at Sierra as Neil snorted beside her.

“I’m their publicity manager.” Sierra said with a sense of déjà vu back to her first meeting with Andrew, although this was far calmer conditions.

“Jesus that must be tough, how do you deal with them.” Allison laughs, taking another shot before leaning in, “tell me your secret Minyard-Josten whispering tricks.” Sierra couldn’t help laughing.

“You know, as long as I keep them fed and happy they’re pretty tame.” She fake-whispers back before almost falling off her chair laughing at the matching affronted expressions on both of the men’s faces. Andrew reaches over and actually shoves her off her chair which has her groaning out an _ow_ before pulling herself up.

“Careful Minyard, one day you’ll hurt me bad enough that I quit and then you’ll really miss me.” She says at him, fake pouting. He tries to glare but can’t quite keep the smirk off his face so the effect is rather muted. Neil is giggling off to the side at them and Andrew’s eyes slowly glide back to his husband’s face, already distracted from the conversation. Sierra decides to leave them at it and turns back to Allison who has a considering look on her face.

“I like you.” She says, like Sierra had asked her opinion. “I think I can entrust you to deal with their publicity.”

“Thank you,” Sierra deadpans, it’s not like that hasn’t been what she has been doing the entirety of the last few years now. Honestly she can’t believe it’s been two years but as she turns to look at the two men, obviously smitten with each other and their family all spread across the dance floor and the bar, she couldn’t really think of better people to have asked for to be her first friends. Even though they could be pains in the ass.

Sierra really had the best job in the world.

**Author's Note:**

> I really hope you guys enjoyed, i know i know it wasn't a part of either of my series but i rlly wanted to write this, and Sierra is my baby and i love her.
> 
> Let me know what you think! Leave comments and Kudos they're seriously appreciated. Thank you for reading!


End file.
